Top Hacking Tools Site Restricts Access
Citing a desire to thwart "script kiddies" and security companies, a popular site that provides free hacking tools has closed its doors to the general public. Hack.co.za will no longer allow all visitors to download its collection of exploits, according to its operator, a South African who uses the nickname Gov-Boi. "I am annoyed with security companies using my archives for their own personal profits ... I am tired of so-called 'penetration testers' who barely know how to use nmap using my (free, non-profit) archive to increase their profits. i am tired of catering for Web page-defacers," wrote Gov-Boi, in a posting at the site today. In an e-mail interview with Newsbytes, Gov-Boi declined to name which security companies have relied on his archives.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/169648.html
Germans Seek To Centralize Internet Content Control
An agreement between the German federal and state governments concerning the reform of electronic media regulatory supervision could result in tougher controls on Internet content. German federal and state governments agreed in principle on a reform plan under which the states would hand over technical and regulatory authority - known in Germany as "data protection authority" - for all electronic media to the federal government. Currently, the federal government oversees technical and regulatory authority of telecommunications, while the states are responsible for electronic media, such as television and radio broadcasting and the Internet. In return for giving up regulatory control of electronic media, German states - which enjoy a high level of autonomy from the federal government - would gain the right to create and oversee a central authority to supervise programming and content.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/169637.html
Code Red: Born In The USA?
While China may have been hit early and hard with the Code Red worm, security experts today said there is no clear evidence that the worm began there, or that its author is Chinese. In a presentation before a House subcommittee Wednesday, Keith Rhodes, chief technologist for the Center for Technology and Engineering at the Government Accounting Office (GAO), said that Code Red I is "believed to have started at a university in Guangdong, China." Rhodes, whose testimony was published at the GAO Web site, was not immediately available for comment. But according to intrusion logs compiled by Dshield.org, Code Red hit the United States and other countries before it made its way to a server installed at Foshan University in Guangdong.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/169636.html
Consumers Think Interactive TV Is Too Much Work 
A new study reports consumers have little interest in many features of interactive television, except those that offer more control over TV viewing. Interactive television, or iTV, has many different aspects. Its products and services include Internet access, interactive programming services, shopping, gambling, e-mail, chat and instant messaging. According to the study by media research company Statistical Research Inc. (SRI), 72 percent of respondents said they were not interested in interacting with television programs. Even in homes that have iTV capabilities, respondents said they rarely or never use interactive links in TV shows, TV-based Internet or e-mail.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/169634.html
No free speech for animal rights Web sites
On Thursday, EnviroLink Network, a Pittsburgh-based nonprofit Internet service provider, took offline two Web sites belonging to the animal-rights activist group Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty. The action came in response to a letter sent to the ISP earlier in the week by Huntingdon Life Sciences, a British medical research firm. Citing the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), Huntingdon accused the activists of violating its copyright. Although no charges have yet been filed, under the terms of the DMCA, Envirolink was forced to remove the sites to avoid potential legal liability. "It's very clear that Huntingdon Life Sciences just wants to shut them up," says Josh Knauer, the founder of Envirolink, which provides free Web hosting to nonprofits. The animal-rights group's U.S. site has been replaced with a single page explaining the conflict, while the main site redirects to another ISP, allowing it to remain up for the moment.
http://www.salon.com/tech/log/2001/0...als/index.html
Cutting Edge Technology to Send Sound Where it Belongs
It's nice to think of the world as a symphony, but most of the time it's cacophony — clashing noises coming from all around us. "When you listen to sound over loudspeakers," says F. Joseph Pompei at the Media Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, "you don't have any control over where the sound goes. Sometimes you don't want it to go everywhere." Pompei has devised a way to solve that problem. He has figured out how to "steer" sounds by aiming them only where he wants them to go with a device he calls an "Audio Spotlight."
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/scite...dge010831.html
The truth about the DivX revolution
When we poo-pooed the announcement by Hollywood's big studios a fortnight ago that they were launching a video-on-demand system to deliver movies over the Internet, we had a number of emails arguing that we'd got it all wrong and were behind the times. DivX is already here, it's already being used and, most importantly, it's great quality at full screen, we were told. It is the equivalent of MP3 for videos and the world will never be the same. Hollywood studios are right to be worried and they may already be too late. We've checked out DivX before and were unconvinced that it possessed the full powers ascribed to it by its supporters. But what's the harm of another look?
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/21407.html
OK, I'm done
